“The Key” has won the jury special mention award at Scratch International Animation Festival.

We are delighted “The Key” has won the jury special mention award at Scratch International Animation Festival. We would like to thanks the jury members, including  Forough Raihani and the whole Scratch team!

We would like to thank Watford and Watford Live! The Scratch Animation Festival were delighted by the story behind “The Key” and its participatory process involving the towns people of Watford. ( in fact some italian asked me if all the people in watford are professional artist & filmmakers…)

Here few pictures marking the visit, pictures by Mewlab and Paride De Carlo

Greek Premiere in Athens Animfest

“The Key” has been screened in Athens in the prestigious AnimFest in the competition section on Monday 17th March , amongst some fantastic animations.

Subtleties

While compositing the animation we are already looking at the Grading of the picture. Starting from the original picture we are testing texture, shades and grain to combine  the different elements together. (Click the pictures to see it full screen)

Original

Grading 1

Grading 2

Grading 3

Miniature Milestones

On the 19 January the last frames was coloured in by Alan Bannister, while today we are delighted to announce that we have water-coloured  and captured the last shot. Proceding with the next step: to complete the compositing!

The Process

Every single shot has been first acted, then filmed, printed out, coloured in, water coloured,  and re-filmed under the animation camera. Then for each shot we draw, coloured, painted and scanned the background . Finally the different elements were imported in  the computer and we composited  the animation with the background and we start to animate the fog.

It roughly means we create about 25/90 frames (1-3 sec) a day from scratch depending on complexity. Here some gifs that show the last part of the process from the water-colour to the composited shot

The last frames coloured in! Thank you!

We would like to thanks everyone that, despite the snow, joined us at the WATFORD MUSEUM on the 19 January… we traced and coloured the last 500 frames!

Also we wish to thanks Watford Museum for their hospitality, Margaret Cheal and Alan Bannister from Watford Live, Stephen from Silencio, the GuidePost Trust, Amma Gyan and David O’Sullivan.

Leaving the Museum at 4.30…

Stephen

Amma

David

Colouring with dedication…

… concentration…

until the last frame!

Now another month of work to finish to composite the animation, then the postproduction will start : editing, creating the sound, recording the voices, composing the music and grading the picture! The last steps…

Last chance to participate! All Free!

Last chance to participate in our marvellous collective film! If you did not manage to come down to one of our drop in sessions you still have a chance to meet and join us at Watford Museum on the 19 January from 10.30 am to 4pm. It is free and we will have cakes and tea…

We involved almost 500 people: locals have been acting, drawing, animating, dancing, and also colouring in a staggering 5000 frames for the animation! And to top it up we had 1831 views on the site, and an extra 560 readers are actually following this blog.  Thank you all for your support!

Well why not join us for a lovely relaxing morning or afternoon with family, friends… the more the merrier!( With also a sneak preview of what the animation that has been created so far!)

Script Editor:Tom Hill

We are delighted we are working with Tom Hill, tidying up the Voice Over for the film.

Tom has recently graduated from the NTFS, and he was the script editor in “Head Over Heels” the short animated film  just nominated for an Oscar and it has won an Annie Award  only a couple of days ago. Congratulation Tom!

Well we held lovely conversation with skype about the little town, its inhabitants, James journey and lots more … and the voice over is shaping up nicely.

A wee bit of Movement

We are painting and filming all the frames to be composited together with the backgrounds, here some GIFs showing part of the process

I particularly love this second shot: on the right hand corner you can see “flickering by” all the names of all the people that coloured in the different pictures . In this GIF 10 different people coloured few frames each

A Winter Room of One’s Own

The days are short and to shoot an animation more often than not you need a dark room to maintain a constant level of brightness. Well, it can feel a little bit like “Groundhog Day” so a beautiful list help feeling a sense of achievement:

So far we did:

• 4000 frames coloured in
• 127 A3 Painted Props
• 66 A3 Painted backgrounds

And now we are about to watercolour and film 5500 frames… But we do still need to colour the last 1000 frames and composite the 66 shots together with the animation It will all takes two more solid wintery months. And after the animation we will do the edit, sound, music, and master it all for cinema viewing.

Here a small sample painting the character of 25 frames, this is only a second of animation.

We paint  and film each single picture.

But at least we have already done:

• 10 meetings
• 3 events with 350 people (+ one extra event on the way)
• 1 casting day
• 3 Days Rehearsal
• 2 Days Shooting
• 1 week editing
• 1 week scriptwriting
• 1 week research with 4 mood boards
• 1 week for 2 animated tests
• 1 week to create the whole storyboard
• 2 days to print the 5500 frames
• 3 days to photographs object for reference for the paintings
• and about 2 to 3 weeks administration to organise it all
• and lot of thinking and solid “dreaming”!

Well we are workaholics!

66 Backgrounds and 127 Props

Ticked, ticked, ticked! On the wall our lovely schedule tell us we have just finished painting the 66 backgrounds needed for the film!

We have not added yet the fog and the picture are not graded (hence the colour are not the final ones), but one can start to feel the town becoming real… we cannot wait to fill it up with the wonderful characters everyone has been drawing and colouring in…

Here below a collage of few backgrounds and an example

And our unglamorous but efficient schedule on the wall

Shaping a world

We are creating all the backgrounds for the film. We started with a fictitious map of the town and a long list of things we need. The maps are just rough sketches to gives us an idea.

We are painting the objects and items we need… These are the first ones. With more background tests.

Keep Calm and Carry on Drawing

We are inching our way towards the final frames, few hundreds to go…!

Then we will film each frame adding the watercolour.

After  we will create all the backgrounds, and  finally we will combined them all together.

MOODBOARD

We are working on a moodboard to find the perfect style for the backgrounds. So we just explore  a lot of books, illustration, and filmmaker we love.
There are images from  Andrei Tarkovsky, Yuriy Norshteyn, Edward Gorey, Michelangelo Antonioni and many more wonderful contemporary artists…

Another fantastic event on the 7 JULY at WATFORD MUSEUM! THANK YOU!!!

We would like to thanks everyone that joined us at the WATFORD MUSEUM  on the 7th JULY… we  traced and coloured almost 500 frames!

Also we wish to thank  Watford Museum for their hospitality,  Margaret Cheal from Watford Live, Steven from Silencio, and  our wonderfully  professional animators & artists  Amy Jennings, Diana Garcia, Aniko Kiss, Luis Jara.

Here are some of the picture of those who participated!

Another wonderful event on the 19 June at West Herts College! THANK YOU!!!

We would like to thanks everyone that joined us at the WEST HERTS COLLEGE  on the 19 JUNE… we  traced and coloured almost 500 frames!

Here are some of the picture of those who participated!

Also we wish to thank West Herts College for their hospitality,  Margaret Cheal from Watford Live, Daniel Hartropp our Assistant Producer and  our wonderfully  professional animators  Amy Jennings, Clare Aburn, Nikolajs Pogrebickis, Josey Grant and Alexander Stanlake

COME AND JOIN US TO COLOUR IN THE 5000 FRAMES!

Come and join us to draw and colour in one of the 5000 frames needed for the first ever “Collective Animated Film” by the Town of Watford.

MewLab in collaboration with Watford Live, West Herts College and the residents in the Town of Watford are creating “The Foggiest Ideal” a hand crafted short animated film.

Drop in sessions will be held on 16th June at the Harlequin Centre between 10-4pm (WD17 2UB) and on the 19th June at West herts College between 11-4pm (WD17 3EZ)

What it takes to print 5000 frames!

An amazing producer: Margaret Cheal
A wonderful reprographic expert: Alison Grant Davey
The kindness of Watford Campus Staff!
A fabulous establishment such us West Herts College!
A monster of a printing machine!
5000  punched A4 animation paper by Chromacolour
Few sharpies, 68 folders, 83 coloured stickers, two suitcases, three large coffee, a big bunch of late nights shifts, two afternoons in the printing facilities!
Lots a patience and nerves of steel!

Yes, nerves of steel!!!!

Alison Grant-Davey printing the frames for “The foggiest Ideal”

Alison Grant-Davey, Margaret Cheal and            printing the frames for “The foggiest Ideal”

Testing, testing, testing…

We finish editing the footage and we organise each shot to beard to printed and now a few tests to check the Art Material, the workflow and to create some concept visuals James and the Dancer with Background Step 4 _Final Step James and the Dancer Step 3 Scanned James and the Dancer Step 2 Painted James and the Dancer Step 1 Original Footage printed Painting the Frames ( the Family)

Shooting Day on 12th May

We had a wonderful and intense day shooting the live action for “The Foggiest Idea”

We would like to thank the whole team:
Dylan as the character of James
Judith as the Dancer
Maya as the Mother and the Commuter
Megan, Richard and Alex as our commuters.

Margaret for the fantastic  organisation of the shoot, Laura Horn for her invaluable Ideas and Daniel for his help as First AD and continuity…

And of course Watford Live, West herts college, Sophie Cady and The town of watford.

The first step is done, do not miss the next step to help us create the next part of the film!

James and his Magnifying Glass

The Commuters


James and the Dancer

Mum and Dad

The child

Costumes…, mmmh which one?

Thank you to West Herts College and to Jane Cousins for the extensive choice of costumes.

Dylan as James, trying out several different costumes provided by Jane Cousins

Alexander Williams : Storyline

The fantastic Alexander Williams kindly helped us to tidy up our script… so we are ready to shoot!

Congratulation to Watford: Green Light!

We pitched the idea to fantastic the Sophie Cady and then we met up with the marvellous Margaret Cheal… and we have the Green Light! With the help of the Mayor funding for  the Art Material and in kind donations from West Herts College, Watford Live and Mewlab ;” Watford” is going to make its first professional collective animated film!

Margaret Cheal : our Executive Producer

Meet our lovely and super efficient Executive producer: Margaret Cheal. She is also key member  of the team of Watford Live, and the Creative Enterprise Manager at West Herts College.